WATERBURY -- Marcus James is on a long and productive basketball journey. The road that started in Waterbury has gone through Kansas and Texas. Now James has entered the swift flow of the Waterbury-Canada basketball pipeline.

That pipeline delivered former Holy Cross star Ta'Quan Zimmerman to Kamloops, British Columbia, and Thompson Rivers University. James, a former Wilby High star and Sam Houston State University graduate, is Canada-bound, too. Last week, the 6-foot-7 power forward was the 18th overall selection (third round) by the Mississauga (Ontario) Power of the National Basketball League of Canada. The NBL begins its third season in November.

James expects to sign a contract within a week and begin training camp Oct. 1 in Mississauga, which is the sixth-largest city in Canada. The Toronto suburb has a population of more than 700,000.

James has logged a lot of basketball miles, and he joked that the journey gets longer still.

"It was a 10-hour drive to Canada," he said. "Have you ever tried to go across the Canadian border? It wasn't easy."

James' journey has been, by his own admission, a quiet one. An unheralded star at Wilby, the Naugatuck Valley League was talent-laden in James' senior season of 2007-08. Crosby's B.J. Monteiro, who played professionally in Europe last season, was the face of the NVL and the Billy Finn Award winner.

Other stars in the league were Andre French and Jordan Williams in Torrington, Jerome Mitchell and Derek Ward at Holy Cross, Bryant Corcoran, Josh Turner and Corey Andrews at Sacred

See JAMES, Page 10B

Heart, and of course, Anthony Ireland at Crosby.

"I have never been at the top," James said. "I have always been under the radar. That was a blessing. I always had to prove myself."

James did that first at Seward County Community College in Kansas and then at Sam Houston State. In the 2011-12 season, James averaged 9.6 ppg., led Sam Houston in rebounds and blocked shots, and was named team MVP. James was also MVP of the Greater Hartford Pro-Am this summer.

His last competitive season was that '11-'12 year at Sam Houston. He stayed at school and graduated this spring with a degree in kinesiology. Finishing the degree, he said, may have been his toughest challenge.

"My focus was the classroom only," James said. "I had never been a real student. I was always a basketball player and a student. There was always basketball. It was big transition to focus just on class every day."

This summer, besides the Pro-Am, James ran a youth program at the North End Rec and prepared for the NBL draft. He missed the U.S. draft combine, but Waterbury player agent Wayne Simone made some calls and James earned a place at the combine in Brampton, Ontario, where he thrived.

"These coaches get 100 e-mails a day from guys like me," James said, "but I had the chance to go there and prove myself."

When training camp opens, James must do that all over again.

"This is a really competitive league, with a lot of good talent," James said, "and it is getting better. There are a lot of guys coming back from overseas, and guys who just graduated from big-time college programs."

It is, James said, another step along his journey.

"I will have the opportunity to play in front of NBA guys," he said. "This is a good opportunity, a good starting point for someone who is fresh out of college. It is an opportunity to prove myself."

For Marcus James, the road is long, from Waterbury to Kansas to Texas and now to Mississauga.

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